


Broken Glass and Happy Laughs

by TricksterNag1to



Category: Dangan Ronpa, Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types
Genre: Aoi and Togami have braces, Blackrom (debateable), Braces, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, First Kisses, Fluff without Plot, I wrote too many shitfics so deal with this, Junko is horrible what a suprise, Lots of Lisping, Middle School AU, This fic made me weAK, Togami cries so that happens, X ruins everything, lisping, rarepair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-01
Updated: 2015-03-01
Packaged: 2018-03-15 19:21:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3458882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TricksterNag1to/pseuds/TricksterNag1to
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Togami ends up realizing he does need to worry about friends with one of the most unlikely of people: Aoi Asahina. He's about to learn that after a very 'fast-braced' event in the library that he will never forget.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken Glass and Happy Laughs

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts), [extravirginwriting](https://archiveofourown.org/users/extravirginwriting/gifts).
  * Inspired by [always there for him.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3347894) by [ghostywitch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostywitch/pseuds/ghostywitch). 



> This beautiful piece of work (which is called 'emotions' on my laptop) was co-written by tumblr user deadprussiajokes and could not be made without her!!! Sage also has a small archive that is a few beautiful works of art so I suggest you give them a read!
> 
> Please read this, this story right now is right now the only thing that gives me life and I love it to bits!!

A short breath escaped the boy's lips as he turned another page in the book before him, allowing a glance up at the clock across the room. "5:15." This surprised him. How long had he been sitting in the library?

He blinked slowly as he looked about the room, realizing that everyone had left. Not that he particularly minded; the less people around to bother him, the better. The quieter it was, the easier reading would be. No people. No chance for him to screw up and utterly embarrass himself.

Bitterly, the blond felt the metal stuck to the front of his teeth with his tongue. He briefly wondered how much longer it'd be that he would be stuck with these horrid braces. What did people think of them? Did they make people think less of him? Oh, God, how awful that would be, if - _Breathe._ He took a deep inhale, gently shutting his eyes. How redundant , he thought. _A perfect silence to read in, with absolutely no one around to distract me, and I am distracting myself anyway. Just focus._

The sound of panting rippled throughout the library when the somewhat-popular, “sports girl” Aoi Asahina stepped in, covered in dirt, sweat and God knows what else. The only possible way of how one could know it was her was the obnoxious whistle that came from her pink and yellow (donut themed) braces.

Slowly, she began to walk through the commonly empty library, questionably peeking through books to see if anyone was there, aside from the weird writer girl who occasionally would visit, or the stuck-up prick, whom the swimmer had the honor of having a mirrored schedule with.

When she did see him, however, she pulled out a chair from across the room and dragged it towards him with a pen and notebook in hand.

Barely glancing up from his book, Togami tried to ignore the excess noise that had suddenly disrupted the previously silent room. However, this became increasingly difficult, as the cause of the noise, Aoi Asahina, a classmate of his (who he didn't much care to spend time with, really] began to pull a chair over to him. He raised an eyebrow, noticing the pen and notebook in her grasp.

"Aoi," he inquired, realizing that simply ignoring her was going to solve nothing, "just what are you doing?"

With a somewhat annoyed sigh, which forced her braces to whistle again at the small heir's response, she held back the urge to stick out her tongue childishly. "Byakuya.." she replied, opening her notebook and beginning to doodle a familiar ogre-like fighter.

"I'm just sitting, you four-eyed lemon. Do you have a problem with that?" the brunette sassed.

"Hmph." Togami's blue eyes narrowed at her, but not before wincing slightly at the all-too-familiar whistle that rang sharply through her braces. "No problem whatsoever. Just don't distract me. I came here to read, not to converse with anyone, or to make petty small-talk."

He attempted to return to his book, but his eyes wandered over to her open notebook, and, more specifically, what she was drawing on it. Despite the sarcastic remarks often exchanged between them, he couldn't help but admit to himself that her art was reasonably good, for not having her muscled friend there to draw reference from.

A few minutes passed of her doodling her friends, brother, and a few little lemons with blond hair and glasses out of spite, and she would occasionally make a loud, purposefully obnoxious sigh just to annoy him.

"Hey Togami.." Asahina began, now tapping her pen on her braces. "Do you always have to be so serious? Like, I understand you could totally buy an entire chain of donut stores - or buy a million swimming pools - but why do you have to be a jerk to everybody and shut yourself out?" Despite the deepness of her question, she hadn’t bothered to look up from her notebook.

That question caught him somewhat off-guard. And the absolute nonchalant tone in her voice in asking something so personal like that... No, he told himself. He wouldn't allow himself to be so emotionally exposed. She must have simply not considered how personal that sort of inquiry was to him, and he certainly wasn't about to let her know just how much it was.

"I simply don't care for much interaction with people. I find it pointless. What logic is there in talking to people that I'd rather not speak to?"

As for the "shutting away" bit... How was he going to glaze over that?

"And I don't "shut myself away", Asahina. I seclude myself from those people who I dislike. There just happens to be a lot of them. I don't' feel like wasting my time with people like that, especially over such trivial things as “hanging out.”

It was painful for the brunette to roll her blue eyes as she held back the temptation to loudly groan at him. "Personally, I just think you don’t know how to interact with people," she commented, a small smirk appearing across her scraped lips from biting them.

Oh, how Aoi loved annoying the poor, innocent child sitting across from her. "Do you even have friends? Aside from Naegi or your hand, I mean?" Asahina asked, forcing her laughter back down her throat.

"I do not consider Makoto my friend ," he replied icily. "Merely an acquaintance." It almost pained him to say that; did he consider him to be a friend? He wasn't fully sure what friendship was, so he had nothing to compare it to. It doesn't matter anyway , he reminded himself.  _Friendship makes you weaker. It's pointless._

 

"I have no need for friends," he muttered, turning another page in his book. He didn't even pause to give himself the satisfaction of considering whether or not he really did want them. It would never matter if he did, because he simply would not allow himself to have anyone that close to him.

Now Asahina had gone to her famous act of mimicking the heir, as he spoke with a foolish expression on her face. "Don't you need friends to, you know- have a life?" she inquired, raising an eyebrow with another roll of her icy blue eyes.

"Tch..." the swimmer began, throwing her hand in the air dramatically as she performed her best impression of the blond. "My name is Byakuya Togami, and I think I don't need friends, when in reality I probably cry myself to sleep each night." she snapped, pretending to push up her glasses.

The stoic expression of complete uncaring remained on Togami's face. "You're absolutely horrid at impressions. And I most certainly do _nothing_ of that sort." Once again, the girl had managed to dig deeper than she had intended to. And, once again, he kept the facade of completely ignorance to her up.

She gripped her pen and continued scribbling random doodles in her notebook. A few more Sakuras, donuts and dogs, until it somehow ran out of ink. "Well, you're equitably horrible at...." She paused. In her head, she hadn’t gotten this far. "Horrible at...uhm...a-at…”

She sat up, as though some grand and glorious idea had just come to her. “At being a proper heir! Ha, if I was one of your parents, I’d consider you the actual trash you are!"

**SLAM.**

The book covers met each other loudly as Togami sat there, mentally warring with himself over whether or not to respond to her. He turned, glaring at her from underneath his bangs.

He said nothing. There were so many possibilities as to how to respond, and so many possible repercussions that could come from each, he remained silent. He just stared at her, emotions conflicting each other behind his eyes.

Without thinking, he stood up, leaving the library without a further word.

" _Who's to say,_ " he thought resentfully, " _That they don't already consider me that?"_

A tidal wave of guilt crashed over the swimmer's shoulders, as she realized how rude that was in actuality. " _Oh my god_..." she internally reprimanded herself, her stomach beginning to churn like too much food after a swim meet, or bad test anxiety. She quickly sprinted into the hallway, nearly tripping as she moved.

"T-Togami!" she croaked before gasping. " _I fucked up. I really, really fucked up_ ," she continued to think as she stared at the small heir's back.

The swimmer opened her mouth but, was somehow at a loss for words. As if he’d taken them and flushed them and flushed them down the toilet - Ah, now wasn't the time for a clever metaphor.

A sharp exhale.

"I don't care for any sort of apology, Asahina," he said without turning around. "It doesn't matter to me. Now, leave me be. I have too many things to attend to, and none of them concern you." He continued walking, hoping that she might just drop the subject, and it would never have to be brought up again like this again.

Naturally, however, Asahina was not the type of person to back off from an argument, which was one of the unlikable things about her. "Byakuya!!" she snapped, taking her pen and pad in one hand and aggressively tossing them in his direction, but flinching as she watched it (hopefully) miss him. "I know you care, you self-obsessed sadsack of an asshole!!"

She cracked her knuckles as a way of relieving the powerful urge to slap him across the face, but this probably gave off an extremely intimidating vibe to the boy.

Now he turned around, his eyes burning with anger. "Asahina..." he spoke slowly, "You've said quite enough about me, today, don't you think? Let me make it clear to you, I have no need for friends, I have no need for personal connections, I have no requirement for _anything_ of that sort. Now leave. Me. _Alone_. "

He spun on his heel, walking further down the hallway, and further away from that girl. That girl who had, in the span of only about 10 minutes, made him feel more emotion than he'd previously allowed himself to feel for a good few months.

A sudden wave of anxiety took the swimmer and threw her underwater, and she was certainly drowning. "Togami, listen to me." she grumbled, breaking into a trot after him while internally fumbling.

She could feel a blush running to her cheeks, anger swimming in her veins like a stupid overly-happy dolphin in the ocean. Oh, how she wanted to slap him. Just to see his stupid face and the red burn that he would feel after she walked away with pride swishing with her hips.

But that would be wrong. Sakura probably wouldn't do that, she’d never even think of it.

Suddenly, she grabbed his sleeve without thinking, a sudden static shock slapping her across the face as she did so. "You do, though!"

His eyes could've passed for daggers at this point, as he craned his neck to look at her. "Says _who_?" Certainly not _him_ ; he'd convinced himself quite a while ago that he had no need for such unnecessary things as "friends." No need. None whatsoever. And a girl with whom he argued with daily surely wasn't going to convince him otherwise.

Her eyes were filled with a mix of regret and anger, swirling like to toxic, drowning sea. She could feel her hands trembling and her teeth chattering in such a way that probably sounded like a mouse trap repeatedly opening and closing.

“Says me,” she retorted, pulling him closer to her with a sneer on her face. “You aren’t as smart as you think, you just have an ego that’s as inflatable as a water ring.”

"What should I care what you think of me?" he replied, every bit as quickly as she had. "It's obvious, isn't it? I really don't care what anyone thinks of me. So what makes you think you're so different?"

Those words left him faster than he'd expected them to, and far faster than he’d a chance to actually consider them. Now that he reheard them in his mind, a shocking thought came to his mind:

He really did care, didn't he?

Somehow, deep below the sharp and cold exterior he'd built for himself, he still cared what people thought. Like with his braces. Wasn't it just earlier that he'd worried about whether they'd make people think less of him? And his parents, that was an entirely different question.

And as far as friends...

Something new began to stir inside of him; an ultimatum. Would he finally give in? Or would he continue on, hollow and wishing that he could be whole? So many things were whirling through his mind at once, and the girl before him was not helping the problem - hadn't she started this whole problem, anyway? - and he could feel his hands shaking with it everything so suddenly happening, and-

Suddenly the swimmer was down, down, down underwater. That broke the surface, and goddammit that boy needed to stop and take a breath. A sudden flash of emotion flew through Aoi's head that wasn't the feeling of accomplishment, or guilt, or anything she could truly acknowledge ever having felt before. It was like having an annoying itch you couldn't scratch, or when you couldn’t think of the word you wanted to use, and it just was an obnoxious emotion to deal with in its entirety.

This coldhearted shell was about to cry. Aoi somehow had stooped to what she thought was his level, but he was like glass. Togami looked strong but on the inside he shattered as easily as anyone and everyone else did. Sakura would be ashamed.

"Well..." she  practically fizzed, her icy blue eyes flickering around like a moth to light. Asahina knew she couldn't look at him in the eye after being so rude and hurtful. It wasn't in her nature.

"Well... because I...k-kinda care about you... Somebody does."

Oh, dammit.

That wretched feeling of something clawing its way through your chest - that awful sensation - of when you know you're going to cry, that overtakes your entire body slowly and doesn't go away, no matter how much you want it to, had begun to spread through him.

 _Stop it_ , he told himself, _you can do this when you're alone, but right now, in front of this girl, this is not the time._

And then, despite his best efforts, he felt every single restraint he'd painstakingly built crumble away, as he felt the buildup of tears he hadn't noticed begin to pour down his face.

A sort of strangled noise escaped his throat, and he quickly raised a hand to his mouth, attempting to muffle the noise. Yet, it was in vain; the sudden constriction in his chest was so overwhelming that he'd simply collapsed to his knees, desperately still trying to choke back any further sobs.

"A-s-a-h...hina..." he managed, his shoulders shuddering. "Pl... ease ..."

 _Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap._ Asahina thought, kneeling down to his level despite them finally being actually having a pretty intense height difference. Her hand touched his shoulder, another static-like shock rippling throughout her body, which only ignited another sudden slap of emotions that caused small tears to escape her eyes.

Byakuya Togami was just glass.

A broken, scared, glass that has been holding tears for god can imagine how long. The swimmer couldn’t see his face, but she imagined his eyes were probably a bright crimson red, his thin, pale cheeks would be tearstained, and his entire body was shaking like a puppy that was left in the rain. The sight was rare, and could easily be used for blackmail, but Aoi wasn’t that much of a jerk.

He was just some friendly competition, and she did have a tendency to take things a bit too far sometimes.

She remained silent, apart from the occasional wheezing whine of her breath through her braces, and, slowly, as though he truly were made from glass, she pulled the sobbing blonde into a hug; Something no one had done to him for what had clearly been a while, perhaps in forever.

Oh, what a pity he must have looked like, breaking down like that, and reducing himself to crying into this girl's arms. What a mess. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he prayed that no one would care to walk down the hall, and find him in such an exposed state.

Then again... What did it matter?

He squeezed his eyes tighter, suddenly finding the simple action of her holding him so close like this, to be surprisingly comforting. His mind had faded from a whirl of thoughts into a single, concentrated one; that one being his awareness of how oddly safe he felt. Something his parents had never provided him with.

In the absence of his lack of emotion, a new one came into play. One that he'd only ever felt the faintest tinges of, as he'd repressed it behind his barriers:

Pure grief.

The emotion ripped through him, forcing cries from his mouth as he'd finally given up on trying to muffle them. He clutched the back of the swimmer's jacket, shivering as he slowly regained some remnants of his composure.

"I'm... s-sorry, I never meant for you to...s-s-see me in such a weak, pitiful state as th-his..." he mumbled into her shoulder. What a fool he must've appeared to be.

Asahina sighed, realizing she had to be the more mentally stable one in the situation for once. She quietly 'shoosh'-ed the sobbing blonde. "It's okay..." she hummed, rubbing her hand in small circles on his hunched back.

The sounds of his wheezing sobs practically punched her across the face. What she’d said to him was a low blow. A worse blow than when her brother used to tease her and pull her hair.

This, she thought, was like stepping on broken glass.

"It's alright... Everything is okay..." she continued, her voice hushed as she carefully looked around with tear-spiked eyes in the hopes that nobody saw this kind of display between the two of them.

Outside the blurry and distorted world behind the blonde's glasses, he seemed so pure and emotional, like he wasn't the cold hearted, sadsack,  and temperamental four-eyed lemon that people saw him as.

He was just scared, alone and afraid. _Then again_ , she thought, _aren’t we all?_

"You aren't weak, Togami.." Asahina continued, stroking his hair cautiously. "Showing emotion makes you strong, I don't pity you.” Her words were truthful.

He felt almost childish, sitting here and crying against her. But her words... Why did her words suddenly make him feel so strongly otherwise? It was probably just because of how unstable he was at the moment, and he'd take just about anything right now, if it meant stability. If he could just get his facade back up, somehow, everything would be alright.

“Th..." He paused, struggling for a moment as he tried to find the correct words. "Thank you, Aoi... This was so u-unprofessional of me..."

The swimmer put her hands on his shoulders, forcing him look at her. "Togami, we're in middle school. There' no such thing as unprofessionalism yet." She sighed, that annoying whistle making a comeback.

Now that they could finally look at each other, silence seemed to flood the room, and it was so thick, it was like an intoxicating ink that couldn't be erased from the story they lived in.

To the immense surprise of Asahina, the blond’s shoulders shook again. Not with pain, this time; but with laughter. Had she ever heard him laugh? Was he… _Smiling?_

“Heh, I suppose, y-you’re… You’re right.”

The absurdity of the entire situation hit Aoi like a brick wall. She’d seen Togami laugh, cry, kiss her, and show genuine emotion to her, all for the first time. And here he was, with tears running down his face, smiling and laughing.

And for the first time, Aoi smiled back. Then, before she knew what was happening, Togami leaned over, and kissed her.  

It didn’t last very long, only a brief moment, and he’d quickly pulled away, or... At least, attempted to.

 _Was this how kissing worked?_ Asahina wondered, he eyes closed shut like what she’d seen in nearly every movie that had involving kissing. She sat there, expectantly.

Unfortunately, there was nothing more to be had, and Togami slowly tried to work his way out of this. Of course, of all times for their braces to get caught, this had to be it.

“Isch schomeching wrong?” Aoi asked, though, her own words answered the question more than Togami could have. “Wait, did you…”

“Um…” Togami scrambled his thoughts for a solution, though none were to be found. “I’ll fixh thish, d-don’t worry, jusht…”

“I shwear to God,” Aoi huffed, repositioning her arms so she could pull herself back from the heir. “Let me-”

A shout of pain rang through the hallway, which alerted the nearby sound of footsteps.

“Togami, you asschole!!” Aoi exclaimed. She went silent, straining to hear the footsteps, and praying that it wasn’t someone they knew; it was already bad enough that they were going to be found like this.

“Shcut up!!” he responded, a hand raised to his jaw in pain. _“Isch not my fault thisch happened!”_

_“Oh yesh, it most shertainly isch!!”_

_“Aschaina-”_

_“I schwear, when thisch is fixhed I’m gonna-”_

“Oh. My. God.”

The two had a moment of shared horror, as they recognized the snarky voice. Above them, accompanied by her two trademark blonde pigtails, was Junko Enoshima. And, to neither of their surprises, she already had her phone out, snapping photos and posting things.

“I had no idea Little Prince Money Bags had a boner for you, Asahina~! Isn’t that cute, oh my God, I know _just_ who is going to die when they see this-”

Togami felt an unwanted flush spread down his neck, and he reached up, tugging at his collar uncomfortably. “Junko,” he began, “do not schend thoshe photosh to anyone.”

“Hm?” Junko hummed, her lips curled into a wicked grin. “What’s that? I couldn’t hear you, over my texting this to the entire school, along with ‘all that ‘Hina in your mouth.’”

Aoi had all but given up on trying to separate them, and she rested her arms on Togami’s shoulder. He hadn’t seemed to notice, though he felt something press against his chest, and, looking down, he got a perfect view down the front of Aoi’s shirt.

“Don’t look at my boobsch-!!” Aoi shouted, pulling away from him. “Aw, Byakuya,” Junko chuckled snapping away more photos. “You look awfully red, huh?”

“A-And I schertainly don’t have a “boner” for her,” he commented.

Curious as to whether or not that was true, Aoi discreetly glanced down. She looked back up, saying nothing. She didn’t feel like making this boy suffer any more than he already was.

Suddenly, Aoi fell backward, as the metal finally came loose. Togami looked over, wondering if she was alright.

Junko’s smirk disappeared, and she groaned. “Ugh, dammit…” the model muttered, before brightening back up just as quickly. “Oo, Asahina, you should check your messages when you get home~!”

**Togami didn’t come to school the next day.**


End file.
